 |
White lilies are among the most ancient of cultivated ornamental flowers. They appeared on Cretan wall paintings, Assyrian carvings, Egyptian tombs and Pompeiian villas and were distributed throughout Europe during the Roman empire.
Their whiteness inspired their Latin name Lilium candidum and they had no rival until Lilium regale arrived from China in 1904. Their popular name, Madonna lily, was invented by the Victorians but this simply confirmed a thousand years of association with the Virgin Mary.
When flowers first featured in European paintings, around the 1300s, the Sienese artist Duccio placed a vase of white lilies beside the Virgin to symbolise her purity; establishing a tradition still vigorous with the Pre-Raphaelites over 500 years later.
A contrasting reddish-orange lily, Lilium bulbiferum or croceum, native to Eastern Europe, was cultivated by the 15th Century when it surfaced in Dutch art, where the colour probably linked it with Christ's redeeming blood.
In 17th Century flower paintings novelty outweighed tradition. Among the new introductions were the Turk's-cap lilies, Lilium chalcedonicum, from Turkey. Their scarlet, backward-curving petals provided another exotic splash of colour in the paintings of Jan Brueghel and his contemporaries.
More about lily varieties from BBC Gardening |
|
 |
 |
 Tulip
Sunflower
Lily
Rose
 |
|
The derivation of the word lily was either the Celtic word 'li' or the Greek 'leukos', both meaning white.
To the Chinese, lily means 'forever in love'.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Any form of reproduction, transmission, performance, display, rental, lending or storage in any retrieval system of the images displayed on this website without the written consent of the copyright holders is prohibited. |
|
|
